September is National Preparedness Month which means we are doing our annual 7 Day Challenge, which just happens to be starting TOMORROW. Check it out and join the fun if you haven’t already signed up. It’s also a time when lots of food storage and preparedness companies have great sales. Here is a summary of some of the best deals going on right now!

The Food Storage Made Easy 3 PART FOOD STORAGE PROGRAM contains a BabySteps Checklists Guide, Food Storage Made Easy Encyclopedia, and Recipe Appendix. This full program is a roadmap for buying your food storage and learning how to use it, so that you can have confidence in knowing that you are prepared for a major emergency or any of life’s little every day inconveniences.Regular Price: $24
Sale Price: $10

The Thrive Q program will help you build a supply of delicious THRIVE food at your own pace and budget. By following these easy steps, you will be able to create and manage a food plan that is customized to your family.Free shipping on first Q shipment in September

Having more than one source of food, power, and other resources will ensure greater protection and comfort when the need arises. Check out some of the different ways in which you can prepare with food, water, and gear.Up to 65% off many food storage and preparedness products

Using your Food Storage daily is made much easier with a great mixer. Bosch mixers are a bread-makers dream. The mixer is still easy-to-use, multiple functions in one machine, saving money and space.Cookie dough paddles, dough hook extender, cake paddles, and bowl scraper for $30

The Plus mill is uniquely designed to nest compactly inside its flour canister for a 30% smaller storage footprint than the Classic mill. With its patented 4-stage filtration system and included flour bagger accessory, milling at home is clean and convenient.Free Grain Crazy Cookbook with purchase

Easily power your Wonder Junior Deluxe with the power of your bicycle to make grinding faster than using the hand crank. Free bicycle adapter kit with all Wonder Junior Deluxes ordered through December 31, 2016Free Bicycle Adapter Kit with Purchase

Did you know you can get A TON of great emergency preparedness and food storage related items on Amazon at great prices? Add in the free shipping benefit if you’re a PRIME member and it’s even better. Here is a list of 101 of our favorite things to buy from Amazon when we don’t feel like venturing out to “real” stores … because … shopping = gross.

We’ve posted before about the BEST whole wheat bread recipe. Yes we said BEST! We both make it quite frequently, sometimes doing a half batch, sometimes doing a full one. In the world of kitchen mixers people have normally had two options, a KitchenAid or a Bosch. Well we just recently got a new WonderMix Kitchen Mixer (produced by the makes of the WonderMill) to try out so of course I knew the real test would be in its ability to make our favorite recipe. It is too large to fit in a KitchenAid so we’ve always preferred to make it in a Bosch. Check out my video below to see how well it did in the WonderMix!

More About the WonderMix

I’ve used both a KitchenAid and a Bosch so it was fun to try out another kitchen mixer option. The WonderMix is not totally comparable to either one of them, it has some distinct pros and cons. Here is a summary of what I found just with this first experiment. I’m excited to try it out on some other baking adventures over the next few weeks.

Pros

Compact size

Large capacity for big batches of dough

Comes with lots of attachments

Dough divider helps knead small batches evenly

Great price point for a powerful mixer

Lightweight and easy to pull in and out of the cupboard

Cons

Noisy

Dough comes up over the hook when making large batches

Possibly feels less rugged than a Bosch but need to experiment more

There are so many different things you can use the WonderMix to do such as: creaming butter, mixing cookie dough, whipping meringue, mashing bananas and potatoes, shredding meat, making smoothies, and much more!

This is the time of year where our readers, our families, and our friends all ask us for advice because they want to “get some food storage” for Christmas. We love the idea of spending Christmas budgets on something useful that is a great long-term investment. However, that’s sort of a hard question to answer with a one-size-fits all solution.

A common theme we tend to see is that a lot of people who want to “get prepared” don’t want to learn a whole new system of cooking, worry about rotating, changing their family’s eating habits, etc. Their strategy is more of a “get it and forget about it” mentality. If this is your style, or you are buying gifts for someone who tends to think like that, the best route to go is just-add-water meals.

Even if you enjoy following a more traditional food storage plan or like to “eat what you store, store what you eat”, we recommend keeping about a 3 month supply of easy meals on hand for a shorter term emergency or to grab-and-go in an evacuation situation.

We are so excited to share TWO fabulous deals we have worked out exclusively for Food Storage Made Easy readers specifically for these Christmas-time purchases people are looking to make. These are the best prices you can get for this many servings.

SHORT TERM – GRAB ‘N’ GO

90 Serving Meal Bucket + Goal Zero Kit COMBO
For the month of December get a FREE Goal Zero Switch 8 Kit ($99 value) with each purchase of a 90 serving meal bucket. These two items together are perfect for your grab ‘n’ go kits. Have all the food you need for a short term disaster and charge your devices while you’re gone. PERFECT for Christmas gifts!Click here to learn more or buy now.

LONG TERM – YEAR SUPPLY

Lindon Farms 1 Year Supply Package
Through December 31st, save 35% off of individual meal bucket pricing by ordering a one year supply (12 buckets). Each meal bucket features a broad variety of 19 different JUST-ADD-WATER gourmet meals and provides 3 meals a day, 4 servings per meal, 2000 calories per day for one person.Click here to learn more or buy now.

COOKING TOOLS

Don’t forget that if you store these types of just-add-water meals you will need to store extra water and also have a source to easily boil water to cook the meals. Here are a few items that can help with that!

WaterBricks – Easy to store a lot of water but small enough to be able to easily access and use.

Butane Stove – Use indoors, just like a regular stove-top. Must store lots of butane.

Firebox – Can be used with a wide variety of fuels. Light and small for portable use.

InstaFire – Versatile fuel that can quickly boil water using any small stove, firepit, etc.

All-American Sun Oven – While useful for many things, it also will cook your just-add-water meals without using any fuel.

OTHER GIFT IDEAS

Inflatable Solar Lanterns – These make great stocking stuffers or inexpensive gifts to add to 72 hour kits. Never worry about having batteries on hand or candles that run out. These lanterns take up very little space and charge from the sun!

Snackies – Instead of filling up on unhealthy treats, get your kids (or kids-at-heart) some healthy snackies. Our kids eat these like candy and we fell totally fine letting them do it! Order these or any other Thrive goodies before Dec. 11th to guarantee arrival before Christmas.

InstaFire Packets – A 24-pack of instafire can be split up for multiple gift recipients. It is a handy fuel/fire starter for backpacking, 72 hour kits, or stove-in-a-can type gifts. It’s so easy to boil water and is very safe to store and use. We love InstaFire.

Food Storage Books – Any number of these books would make a great gift for someone just getting started or for a veteran food storage pro in your life. You can never have too many books on being prepared and there are always new ideas in every one.

If you have family, friends, or neighbors who you have been wanting to introduce to the world of preparedness, this could be a fun way to do it. We’ve put together 12 days of free or inexpensive (under $1) gifts that follow along our 10 Babysteps to help someone get started and hopefully peak their curiosity to learn even more.

Feel free to adapt this to meet your needs. Spread the gifts out over 12 days, or you can do all 12 days at once as a “getting started” package. Each day has some recommendations for some more advanced gift ideas if you’d like to check them out. Don’t forget to download the tags and labels for each day and Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Food Storage Christmas

Emergency Preparedness is always a great place to start. Print out our in depth Emergency Preparedness Plan that your loved one can fill out as a starting point for their family. Roll it up and tie a pretty ribbon around it and attach the Day 1 tags and labels to it. You could also include a personal note letting them know that you will be giving them some fun little gifts over the next few days to help them be more prepared.

We have two ideas for day 2. Babystep #1 is shelves so you can build a little rotating can shelf out of cardboard and stick the day 2 tags on it. Download the instructions here and you can even give them a copy so they can make their own additional units to fill their pantry. If you don’t have the time or patience to do this, you can opt to print out our Small Spaces Storage Solutions handout which gives lots of ideas on sneaky places to store food storage. Again, this can be rolled up with a cute ribbon tied around it and the Day 2 tags added to make it fun

Babystep #2 is water, one of the most critical components of any preparedness or food storage plan. For today you can either recycle a few empty pop or juice containers and fill them with clean water, or you can splurge and grab a few little water pouches that can be great for 72 hour kits or car emergency kits. Depending on how many you buy they can be less than $0.50 each! Whichever option you opt for, add your Day 3 tag to make it cute.

Babystep #3 is to put together a 3 month supply of regular foods. Print out these worksheets to help someone get started on their 3 Month Plan. There is an Instruction Sheet, a Menu Plan Sheet and an Inventory Sheet. You will need to print the Menu Plan Sheet multiple times depending on how many different meals you want to plan. There is also a video tutorial to go along with these forms found here. Put the printed worksheets in sheet protects or roll them up and tie a ribbon around them. Don’t forget to attach the Day 4 tag!

Babystep #4 is an introduction to long term food storage foods. People often get overwhelmed with how much and what to buy. Here is a handout that includes instructions and a simple food storage calculator that you can print out, tie a ribbon around, add the cute Day 5 Tags, and give to someone. This will help them determine quantities of foods to purchase based on their family size.

Babystep #5 is learning to use grains, and more specifically wheat. People often have a hard time using wheat if they don’t have a wheat grinder. If you haven’t tried making Blender Wheat Pancakes you are missing out! This is something easy you can make that uses wheat with no wheat grinder required. Put the ingredients in a baggie, tie a ribbon around it and a recipe card with instructions. Don’t forget to add the Day 6 tag as well. It wont cost you much, but will surely impress and motivate someone to use their food storage.

Babystep #6 moves on to learning about beans/legumes. Legumes can be very intimidating to a lot of people so this is a great one to help people realize they aren’t so bad. Purchase a 1 lb bag of 12 bean soup mix from the grocery store ($1-$2). Tie a ribbon around it and include the Day 7 Tags. Include this 12 Bean Soup Recipe on a cute recipe card for them, it’s delicious!

Babystep #7 covers baking ingredients that are necessary for you to be able to make a lot of recipes using your grains and legumes. Salt is one of those things that you run out of, and don’t necessarily think of storing. Find or buy a container of salt and make it cute with ribbons, or put it in a gift bag, and remind them Food Storage isn’t just grains and legumes.

Babystep #8 is purchasing or preserving fruits and vegetables. While not critical for sustaining life, fruits and vegetables are a welcome addition to any food storage program for the health benefits, variety, and to help you save money on your day to day grocery shopping. Gardening is a great way to become more self reliant. Try giving a few packs of gardening seeds to help motivate people to get going on gardening. If you know the person doesn’t have a lot of space, pick herbs, or things you can grow on kitchen counters.

Babystep #9 encourages people to store comfort foods for times of crisis. This is a great day for the holidays. Even just a candy bar or 2 in your storage for just in case scenarios are great. Pick up the person’s favorite one and surprise them with a little treat to have in time of need (and tell them they can’t eat it right away, they have to store it 😉 Tie a cute ribbon around the candy bar and add the Day 10 Tags and you’re all set.

Babystep #10 covers all aspects of storage that are NOT food. Although Food Storage (and Christmas for that matter) are a lot about food, we can’t forget the non-food items that are important and necessary to store not only for hygiene but also for cooking, cleaning, first aid, etc. Any inexpensive toiletry would be a great gift for this day (toothpaste, deodorant, etc.)

Once you have completed the first 11 days for a friend, or family member, it’s time for them to keep the journey going themselves. To help them do that, we have our BabyStep Checklists. Have the person you are giving to sign up for our free email checklists. You could even sign up for them with their email address and print out the first checklist for their gift. The checklists last for one year and are sent every 2 weeks. After following the 26 checklists they will have a full food storage for one person.

CLICK BELOW TO SHARE ON PINTEREST

We recently had the opportunity to meet Dale from Fortress Clothing at a preparedness expo here in Utah. We knew that his products served a huge need we had been looking to fill, so when he offered to come show them to us so we could try them in action (in the freezing cold) we knew we needed to jump at the chance. We tried on the entire bug out bag set and went out by the lake with a bitter wind. We were thoroughly impressed and are looking forward to adding these items into our “heat storage” preparedness plans.

Please remember that while something like this can be critical and life-saving in cold weather, it may not be one of the first items to get as part of your preps if you have budget constraints. If you have food, water, cooking, and sanitation covered look to this as a solution as you delve more into the more advance topics of protection, shelter, heating, and cooling.

FOOD STORAGE MADE EASY READERS USE COUPON CODE FSME25 for 25% OFF YOUR PURCHASE at FortressClothing.com

Fortress isn’t just a coat – it’s not even just cold weather clothing. Fortress is your complete HEAT STORAGE SOLUTION, and the advantages to using this to provide your warmth in an emergency are obvious. Fortress RETAINS YOUR BODY’s HEAT. Instead of trying to heat the space around you (your home, tent, or cabin) with traditional resources like firewood, coal or propane, FORTRESS allows you to be comfortable while heating yourself. Whatever the conditions, you will be able to function!

Jacket liner is warm enough for -30 degree temperatures yet light-weight enough for a chilly day at the soccer field.

Breathable material that is easy to maneuver in and doesn’t make you hot

Mittens remove the need for expensive and disposable hand warmers

Pant liners are perfect for sledding or snowmobiling (very versatile)

Hot socks (booties) act as a liner inside boots or as comfy house slippers

No need to buy multiple expensive coats, simply wear a light jacket or hoodie over the Fortress Jacket for a perfect coat solution

Save money by storing less fuel for your family’s warmth

Complete Bug-Out-Bag

If you opt for the complete heat storage solution the entire set fits in a handy little “stuff sack”. This is perfect to attach to a backpack for your 72 hour kits to easily grab-and-go, stash in your car trunk for your car kit, or store on a closet shelf nicely compacted.FOOD STORAGE MADE EASY READERS USE COUPON CODE FSME25 for 25% OFF YOUR PURCHASE at FortressClothing.com

When we first started our first storage adventures we actually didn’t even know what wheat kernels looked like. The whole idea of storing wheat, grinding it, and cooking it without electricity seemed so foreign and daunting to us that we didn’t even try to tackle it for almost a year.

One day I was visiting a friend and she had a wheat grinder on her counter and I started asking her all about it. She showed me how it worked and sent me home with a little baggie of flour and a bread recipe. All of a sudden I realized that wheat was flour, and I knew how to cook with flour! I borrowed her wheat grinder every few weeks until I could afford my own and when we finally purchased our WonderMills our food storage lives changed forever. In fact, we even did a post titled 17 Ways to Use a Wheat Grinder a little while back. Yes we use them that much!

The two mills we have always recommend are the WonderMill and the NutriMill. You can’t go wrong with either option. We preferred a few of the WonderMill features over the NutriMill when we did a side by side test so that is the model we went with at the time. However, NutriMill just came out with a BRAND NEW mill called the NutriMill Plus that we are excited to try out. Here are some of the details in comparison to the classic Nutrimill:

The NutriMill Plus boasts 11 new patented improvements. It is 15% quieter than the Classic mill and has 20% more capacity than the classic NutriMill.

The Plus mill is uniquely designed to nest compactly inside its flour canister for a 30% smaller storage footprint than the Classic mill. With its patented 4-stage filtration system and included flour bagger accessory, milling at home is clean and convenient. We are so excited to get our hands on one of these and try it out in another little side-by-side comparison!

We recently had the opportunity to meet with Kris from Titan Ready USA and he showed us some of his products that we are excited to share with you. These products are simple but efficient solutions to some preparedness dilemmas we know we have faced and you may have as well. This post covers the Hydrant Water Storage Systems, but be sure to check out the HERC tea light ovens and the Helius Rocket Stove.

FSME DISCOUNT: Click here to shop And enter coupon code FSME10 to save 10% on your Water Tower order. This deal is exclusively for Food Storage Made Easy readers!

The Hydrant Water Storage Systems are 2-4 barrel towers that store 55 gallon barrels of water. You can start with a 2 barrel system and add to them as your storage needs increase. You rotate the water via the bottom barrel that sits high enough that you can fit a 5 gallon bucket beneath it.

Everything you need to stack and connect two 55 gallon water storage barrels. Racks are welded and powder coated here in the USA. Wide base for stability in every emergency situation. Assembles in minutes with aluminum bung wrench (included) and a flat head screwdriver. Water rotation has NEVER been so easy!

Please Note: If you are just getting started in your water storage or on a tight budget, we are not suggesting is where you need to start. Check out BabyStep 2: Water for lots of ideas on getting started. However, having gone through lots of different options, we have found this one to be the most efficient and space-effective. You can also purchase a plumbing kit and attempt to DIY if that’s more your style.

We recently had the opportunity to meet with Kris from Titan Ready USA and he showed us some of his products that we are excited to share with you. These products are simple but efficient solutions to some preparedness dilemmas we know we have faced and you may have as well. This post covers the Helius Rocket Stove, but be sure to check out the HERC tea light ovens and Hydrant Water Storage Systems as well.

We’ve seen a lot of rocket stoves around but this is the first one we have seen that we’ve been really excited to use. This one sits high off the ground and has a great solid base you can cook on without bending over or needing a steady, safe surface to place the stove on. We love that you can use this stove to pressure can, camp, or in an emergency situation. Also this stove can use such a variety of fuels!

Helius Rocket Stove

Cook complete meals using nothing but wood scraps and yard debris with the Helius Rocket Stove. The Helius Rocket Stove is a durable, clean alternative to outdoor cooking, using readily available scraps as fuel instead of more costly alternatives like propane or briquettes. The design of the rocket stove heats to cooking temperatures in only a few minutes with only as much fuel as fits in the fuel magazine.

Above ground, no crouching to cook

Can you it to pressure can your meats if power goes out and your freezer is compromised

We recently had the opportunity to meet with Kris from Titan Ready USA and he showed us some of his products that we are excited to share with you. These products are simple but efficient solutions to some preparedness dilemmas we know we have faced and you may have as well. This post covers the HERC tea light ovens, but be sure to check out the Helius Rocket Stove and Hydrant Water Storage Towers as well.

While butane stoves are great for stove-top cooking indoors, we have yet to find a good solution for oven cooking indoors. Having a diversified preparedness plan is great to cover yourself in different scenarios. For example, a Sun Oven is great if you don’t have any fuel, but not so great if it’s rainy or you’re trying to be discreet in a crisis. That’s why we recommend having different options. All have their pro’s and con’s.